The Fearless School Leader

Cynthia McCabe, Director of Elementary Schools for Carroll County Public Schools in Westminster, MD and the author of the new book, The Fearless School Leader: Making the Right Decisions, joins us to talk about the nature of fear and how it impacts school leaders. In this interview, she also explains how school leaders can face up to their fears and turn them into positives, the best way to handle conflicts, and why school leaders need to develop “the courage to welcome healthy conflict.”

Q: You make a very interesting point at the beginning of your book about how, despite all the work of thought leaders like Michael Fullan and Doug Reeves on how to make change happen in schools, very little change has actually occurred. Why do you believe that’s the case?

Cindy McCabe: While I think they have great points, I think the changes that they bring up require us to do things and have conversations that upset a lot of people, including teachers and parents, and principals and district administrators already have to handle a lot of conflict in their jobs. So, by making the fundamental changes that Fullan and some others suggest, your conflict is actually bound to increase, at least in the short term. When most of us are wired to avoid conflict, it is no wonder that those fundamental changes never actually take place.

Q: What is the nature of fear and how does it manifest itself in the daily life of a school leader?

Cindy McCabe: First, I would say that our emotions control most of our decision-making. So in essence, we feel, we decide, and then we rationalize, if we let ourselves go unchecked. So, fear as an emotion is a very powerful and primal feeling and it triggers the fight or flight response in order to protect us and keep us safe; so fear is good in that respect. The trouble with it is that it’s uncomfortable, it’s unpleasant, and it is even painful, so in our quest to alleviate these sensations, we often end up running away from just the situations we ought to be confronting. For instance, in my book I talk about the walk throughs that principals do on a daily basis. You know, you come to the classroom that you know you are going to find things in that you are going to have to confront. Often times, folks will just keep on walking.

Q: Tell us about the four fears that factor into most professional decisions and the needs that people have that motivate action?

Cindy McCabe: Okay, well the need that covers everything, and the need that everybody asks themselves about all the time, probably subconsciously more than consciously, is “What is my worth? What is my worth in life?” and “What is my worth in this organization?” and that plays itself out in more fears; basically, the fear of failure, the fear of judgment, the fear of rejection, and the fear of purposelessness. Those fears have corresponding needs, so for instance, when we fear failure, we are also motivated by the need for mastery. We want to be able to accomplish things and feel that sense of mastery, so sometimes we won’t take on a new challenge because we are afraid that we will fail at it and not feel mastery. The second fear of judgment, its corresponding need is respect. We don’t want to feel judged by people because we want to feel their respect. We want people to perceive us as good, moral, or just. The fear of rejection is accompanied by the need for acceptance. All of us want to fit in. Finally, the fear of purposelessness has at its opposite the sense of meaning and purpose. We want to feel that sense that what we do everyday matters.

Q: What’s the best way for a school leader to face up to his or her fears and turn them into a positive?

Cindy McCabe: I think the first thing that school leaders need to do is acknowledge their fear. I think most of us push it down and we don’t acknowledge it; so in order to not avoid that fear, we acknowledge it. We let ourselves know that other people are probably feeling that same fear that we are feeling and that it is normal, as long as you don’t let it control you and your actions. So you allow yourself the feeling and you tell yourself, “You know what, I am feeling this fear and it’s not going to kill me; I’m going to get through it.” And then the next important step is to identify the specific thoughts that are contributing to that particular fear. Often times, we have thoughts that really are not accurate. They’re resistant thoughts or they are runaway thoughts, so when we really take the time to process what the thought is, often times we will come to the realization that it is really faulty thinking. If we can change that, or just tweak our thoughts a little bit, we won’t feel as much fear. Finally, I think keeping our eye on the prize; making sure that we have higher concerns in mind of student achievement, and then moving forward.

Q: School leaders must deal with conflict all the time. What’s the best way to deal with conflict?

Cindy McCabe: Well, I think one important thing is to identify you stakeholder’s fears and needs. Those fears and needs that we just spoke about, everybody has those in an organization and I think you have to acknowledge those and understand that is probably what is motivating the people who are having the conflict. Then, try to find ways to alleviate people’s fears and fulfill those needs that they have. Secondly, I think in dealing with conflict, you have to develop trusting relationships. People need to know that even if you don’t agree with them or they don’t agree with you in a particular circumstance, that you still care about them and you still value their worth in the organization. Also, I think people make the mistake of dealing with conflict in a large group situation. I think you need to deal with conflict in as small a group as possible and, whenever possible, one-on-one because then those personal trusting relationships can really come through. Finally, I would just encourage people to find their voice and speak the thoughts that you were afraid to speak. Often times, when you actually speak what you are afraid to speak, you will find common ground with the people you are in conflict with.

Q: You actually talk about what you call,  “developing the courage to welcome healthy conflict.” Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Cindy McCabe: Sure. Well, some conflict in an organization is healthy, and that conflict usually is around the school’s goals or how to get to those goals, and having healthy conflict around that actually will propel a school forward, or propel any organization forward. And then there is unhealthy conflict. That is conflict that is about hurting others; it is unhealthy. And then, there is no conflict at all, which is just as unhealthy as conflict to hurt others. Where there is no conflict in an organization, that usually means that the organization has some kind of group think going on where powerful cultural norms and limited paradigms have stunted some valuable ideas and stunted improvement altogether.

Q: Can you tell us about the six fearless decisions that you have identified that school leaders need to make in order to be successful?

Cindy McCabe: Sure. I would say the first one is dealing with conflict versus avoiding it. As I said earlier, if you are going to implement any school improvement changes, I think you have to get comfortable with having some conflict. The second one would be taking action to impact student learning. You can’t move forward with school improvement until you are actually ready to take some action with people and help them move students forward. The third is acknowledging standardized test results. I think so many people fear high-stake test results, and because of that, they downplay them, ignore them, and just kind-of avoid them altogether. That is not going to benefit students and move a school forward. I think the fourth fearless decision is holding teacher accountable for student achievement. I think until we do that and help teachers to understand that is their job, their job is to improve student learning, unless we get to that core and hold teachers accountable for that being their job, we won’t get very far. The fifth decision is holding high expectations for student achievement. Not only do we hold teachers accountable, but we hold teachers accountable for high student achievement because we know our students can do. The sixth fearless decision is prioritizing results over ideology. I think that is one that I know I deal with a lot, and really goes to people being tied to specific instructional paradigms or practices and not being willing to try new things in order to get better results.

Q: Tell us about your new book and how it can help school leaders?

Cindy McCabe: Well, I think my new book combines information from the fields of psychology, marketing, neuroscience and management, and it uses all of that information to explain the behavior that we see going on in schools every day. It gives real life examples from my life as well as the lives of other educators, and it takes the reader through a step-by-step process to make good fearless decisions for students every day.